February 14, 2010 Shawn and I sat on the beaches in Thailand. We had seen each other for the first time again after being apart for 3 months while Shawn was serving in Afghanistan. I will never forget this day, or many other memories made during our trip. It was one eventful, emotional, and amazing experience. I am so glad to have spent every second of it with Shawn.

My natural female instinct always loved some part of Valentines Day. I love being spoiled and showered with lovely gifts. But it was never a huge thing with me.  I still wouldn’t say it is a “huge” thing but this day means a lot to me. It reminds me of a place in my life where there was a lot of unknown. A place that I never imagined I would be in a life time.

 As Shawn placed the ring on my finger, I cried. I cried like I did not even know I could. So many things went through my head. Happy, sad, HAPPY, sad! Happy because WOW I am the luckiest girl in the entire world, Sad because there was still 3 months left in Afghanistan keeping us apart, Happy because never in my life did I plan to get married but now I had this amazing man in front of me asking to spend the rest of my life with him, Sad because there was still 3 long months left of the unknown.

As I cried, and I mean cried for a very long time, I knew this was it. This was the man I was going to marry. This was the one man in the entire world that I was going to spend the rest of my life with. I was going to plan a wedding with him, and buy a house and have kids. I was going to share all of my life long struggles with him and share all of life’s joy with him. He was it, and he loved me back. Someone in this world loved me enough to want to spend the rest of his life with me. Someone loved ME that much. I guess I should have already known all of this, but having a man on his knees declaring his love is a feeling like no other.

I love Shawn more than words can say. The things that we have gone through in the short 4 years that we have been together are absolutely amazing. Shawn grounds me when I need it, and lifts me up when I need that. He keeps me focused and he keeps me sane. He balances me like no other and he truly makes me who I am today. He has given me so many things in so many ways, I am pretty sure he doesn’t even understand all the ways he has completed my life.

A few weeks back I posted that I wanted to do a session. I was so in love with the idea I had that I decided to do it myself. Besides, I wanted new photos of Shawn and I. But this was my vision, my idea so we challenged ourselves. We attempted to shoot it ourselves. DISASTER! This was incredibly hard. It was so cold out, my eyes were watering therefor wrecking my make up, and 99% of the photos are not in focus. Not so good with a remote I guess. But still, the fact that Shawn stood outside in the cold and pretended that we could shoot ourselves was all I needed for Valentines Day this year. Seriously, what other guy would do that!

Thank You Shawn, I Love You!

And yes, I will be your life long Valentine!

Enjoy some of the shots we got that day (some still aren’t in focus but I used them anyway, bare with me it was a challenge and a half ha ha)